Electric cars.

There is the odd stonking deal about at the moment, if you are willing to do a PCP deal - saw one today where it was circa £300 down, £300 a month with a GMFV of around £13k or so; whilst not the most desirable car in the world, it was a brand new Hyundai with 5 years warranty, so no disgusting. You're right though, the days of folks going out and buying one cash are just about gone

 

I've always bought new cars and kept them for at least ten years. My first one was in 1965 and cost £375. I saved hard for a few years for that one.

 

Personal Contract Purchase - Guaranteed Minimum Future Value. So, these can go for you or against you.... I had a Nissan Qashqai on a PCP that I put a few grand deposit into.. it should have gotten to the end of it's term and been worth around £3.5k more than the GMVF (which is also the balance you need to pay if you want to keep the car and buy it outright); the dieselgate scandal broke and everyone suddenly went off diesels, so the value tanked, badly. That coincided with me being ill in 2018, so I wasn't driving for almost a year, so I decided to hand the car back (as I could do under the agreement at the halfway mark) and take the loss of the deposit. Even at that stage, the finance company took a bigger hit than I did.

My last one, Jag XF, my deposit wasn't a hell of a lot on that one on a PCP again as I was still recovering from having to start again in 2019... it was bought in Feb 2020, just before the world went mad. By the time I traded it in April 2023, it's value paid off the outstanding balance and gave me £4.5k toward the Volvo, so that was a good one. The Volvo is on track to pay for itself and hand me around £3k at least if I want to trade on, but I might just refinance the balloon on this one (around £10k) which is a lot of money... but, you won't buy a six year old XC60 for £10k anywhere.... plus, I know this car backwards and know what has been done servicing wise.

It becomes difficult when you see deals such as the Hyundai I mentioned earlier though, as that is a brand new car for similar monthly payment to just now, or indeed for a loan to buy this one outright... so what do you do? Do you stick with a 6-7 year old Volvo or do you go for a brand new Hyundai... one you like, the other has a five year warranty.

 

I've always done the same and struggle to convince myself on hire purchase

 

It can be - trouble is, when you are mostly bloody skint, it is that or constantly pouring money into bangers. Don't get me wrong, this Jag that I have sort of "adopted" would still be able to ba ran as a daily even today, despite being 29 years old. But... you'd be forever chasing it with bits and that would get expensive, fast - assuming you could even get the bits. Then there is ULEZ which knackers a lot of folks around this way too.. you are almost forced into buying something newer.

When I bought the XF, I traded in an XJ8 that was a lovely thing, but it drank like an alcoholic at a free bar and at the time, our dog was quite ill and all our money was going on him. It was cheaper to have a PCP on a diesel XF than it was to keep running the XJ.

As it stands today, I have two years to decide - I can refinance the last chunk on the Volvo and keep it (quite likely to happen) at any stage from now basically, or I can trade it for another and just keep paying the monthly payment. In all reality it isn't that different to leasing really, except leasing is often more expensive.

It doesn't help when you don't own your own home - as soon as you rent, financing options change significantly.

 

It was a petrol, somewhat surprisingly.